Elliott Dacher, M.D.

Elliott S. Dacher, M.D., is a physician, meditation teacher and author who studies and teaches the principles and practices of health and healing, with a special focus on inner development and human flourishing. His work emphasizes the traditional goals of medicine: the end of distress and suffering and the promotion of each individual's fullest potential. He sees the progressive and precise practice of meditation as central to that vision.

Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Dacher studied at Queens College, C.U.N.Y., and attended medical school at S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo. He completed his postgraduate training at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago and on the Harvard Medical Service at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He began practicing in Washington, D.C., in 1975, working as an internist, physician/administrator, and director of wellness and health promotion services for the Kaiser Permanente Health Care Program. In 1984 he opened a private practice in Virginia, where he began bringing meditation, imagery, yoga, biofeedback and alternative therapies into his work with patients.

After 21 years in internal medicine, he left practice in 1996, recognizing the central role of the mind in healing. He turned to full-time study of consciousness and health, including mind/body medicine, integral health and human flourishing, among the wisdom traditions of Asia. His teaching meditations emphasize directly and effortlessly accessing our natural, authentic self, which he describes as the true source of human flourishing.

Dr. Dacher is the author of Aware, Awake, Alive, which brings together the wisdom and practices of East and West. His earlier books are Integral Health: The Path to Human Flourishing (Basic Books, 2006), Whole Healing (Dutton/Plume, 1996) and Intentional Healing (Marlowe, 1996). He is a past fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a past advisory board member of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. A frequent presenter and seminar leader, he also offers personal mentoring and counseling. He lives in Massachusetts.